Best Bad War/Combat Movies Ever?

[straffham]

Errrrr fellas thread is best BAD war films lol, just remembered The 70s original of The Inglorious Bastards -not the Tarrantino version - its really comically bad!

[JamesAirsofterAgent]

Lol, I thought it meant the best AND the bad!

[Chock]

Memphis Belle is definitely one of the worst war films. And just to be clear here, I'm referring to the appalling fictional movie from 1990, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, not the excellent 1944 documentary directed by William Wyler about the real aircraft. Fortunately, Michael Caton-Jones although directing a few other movies, has not directed a big movie since he made Basic Instinct 2 in 2006 (for which he earned 'worst director at the 2006 Golden Raspberry Awards), but he is still directing TV stuff, so we're not completely safe from his efforts.

 

Why is Memphis Belle so bad? Because unlike most war movies, this one is trying to channel bogus authenticity by pretending to be an only slightly fictionalised account of the true story of a real B-17 in WW2, when in fact it changes just about every occurrence it can and ends up being an insult to all the flyers (on both sides) who served in WW2, and especially to those who served on board the real Memphis Belle. And the direction and acting is, at best, merely adequate.

 

But as craply-directed as it is, it's not all the director's fault. The screenwriter must certainly take some of the blame: As if the real story of the Memphis Belle wasn't compelling enough (and already brilliantly covered in William Wyler's excellent original movie), the writer for this 1990 travesty of a movie - Monte Merrick (who I'm sure we've all never heard of and who has had a similarly non-meteoric career after having written this pile of cr*p) - decided to invent a load of fictional claptrap in an attempt to make things more dramatic - What? like the true story of the aerial campaign by the 8th Air Force in WW2 wasn't dramatic enough already Monte?

 

So we get bogus cliched backstories woven into a preposterous storyline which feels like it was written by a mentally challenged eight-year-old, and all this with turgid direction and some Z-list-esque, phoned-in performances from some fairly big name stars. Adding to the lack of authenticity are the regulation Spanish-built Casa Ha112s playing bf109s, the B17Gs playing B17Fs, P-51D Mustangs instead of P47 Thunderbolts, mixed in with appallingly bad model and matting shots (which one could almost tolerate if anything else in the movie was even remotely okay, but sadly is not). Throw in a host of operational and factual inaccuracies, from start to finish, which even someone with only a basic understanding of how a WW2 bomber works could spot a mile off, to complete the inept mix.

 

As if all this wasn't bad enough, the film-makers managed to destroy one of the few remaining airworthy B-17s that was around whilst using it to make this pile of embarrassing donkey sh*te. Almost as bad, some of the framing and composition of shots in the movie are literally exact recreations of shots from Wyler's original genuine footage from 1943 and 1944, but they still manage to look phoney and forced owing to the p*ss-poor lighting and editing.

 

How, with such an aesthetically pleasing aircraft as the B-17, and access to five of them, plus numerous other aeroplanes, a cast with some major A-List movie stars, a budget of 25 million (and that's 25 million nearly 25 years ago, so a lot more in real terms), and one of the most dramatic and compelling, not to mention bloody, campaigns of WW2 to highlight, can you still end up with one of the most boring, turgid and insulting movies of all time?

[Russe11]

Memphis Belle is definitely one of the worst war films. And just to be clear here, I'm referring to the appalling fictional movie from 1990, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, not the excellent 1944 documentary directed by William Wyler about the real aircraft. Fortunately, Michael Caton-Jones although directing a few other movies, has not directed a big movie since he made Basic Instinct 2 in 2006 (for which he earned 'worst director at the 2006 Golden Raspberry Awards), but he is still directing TV stuff, so we're not completely safe from his efforts.

 

Why is Memphis Belle so bad? Because unlike most war movies, this one is trying to channel bogus authenticity by pretending to be an only slightly fictionalised account of the true story of a real B-17 in WW2, when in fact it changes just about every occurrence it can and ends up being an insult to all the flyers (on both sides) who served in WW2, and especially to those who served on board the real Memphis Belle. And the direction and acting is, at best, merely adequate.

 

But as craply-directed as it is, it's not all the director's fault. The screenwriter must certainly take some of the blame: As if the real story of the Memphis Belle wasn't compelling enough (and already brilliantly covered in William Wyler's excellent original movie), the writer for this 1990 travesty of a movie - Monte Merrick (who I'm sure we've all never heard of and who has had a similarly non-meteoric career after having written this pile of cr*p) - decided to invent a load of fictional claptrap in an attempt to make things more dramatic - What? like the true story of the aerial campaign by the 8th Air Force in WW2 wasn't dramatic enough already Monte?

 

So we get bogus cliched backstories woven into a preposterous storyline which feels like it was written by a mentally challenged eight-year-old, and all this with turgid direction and some Z-list-esque, phoned-in performances from some fairly big name stars. Adding to the lack of authenticity are the regulation Spanish-built Casa Ha112s playing bf109s, the B17Gs playing B17Fs, P-51D Mustangs instead of P47 Thunderbolts, mixed in with appallingly bad model and matting shots (which one could almost tolerate if anything else in the movie was even remotely okay, but sadly is not). Throw in a host of operational and factual inaccuracies, from start to finish, which even someone with only a basic understanding of how a WW2 bomber works could spot a mile off, to complete the inept mix.

 

As if all this wasn't bad enough, the film-makers managed to destroy one of the few remaining airworthy B-17s that was around whilst using it to make this pile of embarrassing donkey sh*te. Almost as bad, some of the framing and composition of shots in the movie are literally exact recreations of shots from Wyler's original genuine footage from 1943 and 1944, but they still manage to look phoney and forced owing to the p*ss-poor lighting and editing.

 

How, with such an aesthetically pleasing aircraft as the B-17, and access to five of them, plus numerous other aeroplanes, a cast with some major A-List movie stars, a budget of 25 million (and that's 25 million nearly 25 years ago, so a lot more in real terms), and one of the most dramatic and compelling, not to mention bloody, campaigns of WW2 to highlight, can you still end up with one of the most boring, turgid and insulting movies of all time?

Not entirely the writers fault. It was written as a screenplay about a British bomber crew. The studios decided it would be better if it was about the Memphis belle. Everything would have worked better with a few public school accents and people keeping their upper lips stiff and brewing some tea. It just doesn't work as an American film.

[Spatch]

U-571 or whatever the fuck it was, apparently the Americans managed to capture the enigma decoder??? Nearly as bad as pearl harbour, epic inconsistencies and well, Ben Affleck, need we say more?

[n1ckh]

Black hawk down, tears of the sun, battleship and the A-team are just a few of my favourite films

 

Battle L.A, battle earth, starship troopers are among a few of my least favoured films

 

Saving private Ryan is a good film but the Americans used British landing craft and not there own on D-Day

[ikarma70]

I love das boot, all quiet on the western front and dear untergang( downfall)

[ikarma70]

I love das boot, all quiet on the western front and dear untergang( downfall)

[Jambo88]

Forbidden ground is a pretty good film and it's on Netflix. It's about 3guys that get stuck in no mans land in WW1. It's worth a watch